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Steam boiler: main vents and automatic water feeders...

I have a steam boiler system in our house, and had plumber "A" change the return pipes (we are finishing our basement). He installed two main vents in the pipes. Plumber "A" somehow disappeared after appearing on Fox 5 "Shame on you".

The two main vents have been spraying water out of the vents, so I called another plumber, "B". Plumber "B" initially identified an issue with a pressure that was too high in the system (he lowered this from 12 to 2 psi). He also capped off the vents, since according to him proper radiator vents are sufficient and main venting is only necessary on larger steam boilers (he mentioned apartment buildings as an example)

My question is: is that correct?

Also, he advised against installing an automatic water feeder, since it's harder to identify an issue (during the winter we normally have to refeed every 2-3 weeks). What are your thoughts?

Can you take pictures of the vents, and the return piping that it is attached to? How high above the floor is the return and vent?

PS. Plumbing =/= Steam Heating. Steam is its own field, with its own intricacies. Not all plumbers work on steam, or know to. He may be a great plumber, but he lacks a good bit of knowledge about steam systems.

Did you have any issues with leaking main vents before the returns were replaced? If not, then the return lines are the root cause of the leaks. Most steam systems can run without main vents, BUT the fuel costs will be more and the system will almost certainly be out of balance. The main vents are not defective. They are not designed to hold in in water. They are designed to let out air and hold in steam. Don't keep on replacing the air vents. It is a waste of money. There is some problem, somewhere, that is causing too much water to be in your system.

You mentioned that you need to refill your boiler every 2-3 weeks. That is bad! The more often that you fill your boiler, the shorter the lifespan of the boiler. Find the leak and repair! Might be the leaking main vents. This is one of the reasons that I don't like auto feeders. You could potentially have an ongoing, undetected leak that will go on for years. The auto feeder will mask the fact that you have a leak and will in the process slowly and cruelly assassinate your boiler.

Thanks all for the replies. I really appreciate it. Tonight I'll also post some pictures, maybe this helps.

So here's the situation. The old return pipes were running across the basement ceiling, and since we want to finish our basement we needed to have these rerouted. That's why we hired a plumber, "A" to reroute these pipes. We haven't had a need to turn the heat on in the house, since this was done a few months back. We only had the heat on to test the system.

So, plumber "A" reroute the pipes which included 2 new vents. I did some tests with the heating system after he had finished the job, and I noticed the leaks.

When plumber "A" disappeared after appearing on "Shame on you" (scamming people with air conditioning installs apparently), I hired plumber "B".

Plumber B noticed the high pressure in the boiler (he said it was around 10-12 psi (?), lowered it to 2 and though that would solve the issue). On a side note, I am not sure if the high pressure has anything to do with the amount of times I need to refill the boiler.

When that didn't solve the issue, he explained that the radiator vents should be sufficient and capped the main vents.

You really should get in a steam expert. Incorrectly run return pipes could lead to water backing into the mains and out the vents. You need entire system checked for leaks and repaired as needed. You should have main vents. Capping the vents can be an expensive and painful bandaid.

What is that green stuff in the water? Did someone add chemicals? Chemicals can cause water to surge and foam which will in turn lead to water being thrown into the pipes. First pic is blurry. Can you redo? Also can you post pics of the pipes coming from top of boiler?

Try flushing the chemicals out of the boiler. Drain all the water out and refill. Repeat until water loses that greenish color. Might take a bunch of times. After the final time that you fill the boiler make sure to run the boiler for 20 minutes. Turn the thermostat to a very high setting. This may solve the problem.

How high is that horizontal pipe on the left side from the ground? How high is the middle of the water glass from the ground? The pipe should be 28" higher then the middle of the glass. Also what is the model # of the boiler?

the only way the air can get out is through the radiator vents -- which aren't meant to do that. This is assuming a one pipe system, which has radiator vents.

Two pipe systems have no radiator vents, but do have a return from each radiator -- and they absolutely have to have return main vents (and sometimes main vents on the suply mains, too -- depends on how the system is piped).

Get the main vents restored.

Jamie

Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England.

Sorry to keep beating the same drum, but you have more issues than lack of vents. There was water coming out the vents. The reason the water was coming out of the vents has nothing to do with the quality of the vents. There is a totally different issue that also needs to be addressed. If you just replace the vents, you will have the exact same problems. Where are you located?

Feel free to give me a buzz through the link in the bottom of this post or by clicking on my posting handle(BN). We service most of Nassau County. The fact that you had water coming out of the vents is a clear sign of a problem. Moving the vents may or may not prevent water from coming out. However, moving the vents will definitely not get to the underlying problem. There is much water where it shouldn't be and you need to know why. Any plumber that won't address underlying problems, should not be let through the door and definitely should not be let out the door with a check in his hand.

And I emailed you early this morning to explain. You may have missed that.

You posted your phone number and website and asked for some business within this thread and that's why I deleted it. It's not fair to the guys who pay a dollar a day to advertise here when you solicit business without having an ad. I suggested in my email that you take an ad that will link to your posts automatically, which would bring you new business.

The last time you suggested I advertise through your website I emailed you personally and asked what the next step was, you never responded. So, please email me and let me know the next step. Also, I did not receive an email explaining the deleted post. Email me directly if you could [email protected]

The address you gave when you signed up on the site was [email protected]. That's the one I've been writing too.

Signing up for Find a Contractor is pretty simple. Go to that part of the site, click on Get Listed, sign in and fill in the form with your company details and a description of the job you'd like to feature. Once you do that, Debbie will call to get your credit card info and ask home many days you'd like.